Evaluation and Quality assurance
Evaluation of School Students
External evaluation and assessment of Schools and Education Systems
We, as the representatives of School Students in Europe, see the necessity of evaluation in order to identify weaknesses and strengths of our schools and education systems as a whole, as well as to monitor the progress, and improve the quality. In order to be able to define quality, high-achieving schools and high quality education we have to focus on inclusiveness, open access, and the flexibility to adapt to School Students’ individual needs. Furthermore, in order to ensure this quality, school systems must be evaluated so that solutions can be found and the appropriate action can be taken. Evaluation and quality assurance must follow the main aim of improving education for the main stakeholders, including School Students and teachers. It should neither be primarily dictated by economic interests, nor by the demands of the labour market. Competition and ranking of schools may lead to a simplification of the situation and may thus set the wrong priorities in the evaluation process. Schools across Europe face different challenges and this must be acknowledged in the evaluation process. Evaluation of education must adapt to every single students need and has to be fair. Education systems have a key role in promoting individual development, so when quality in education is discussed, both personal development and the improvement of the system should be taken into account. We believe that education should also promote the development of social competences and encourage critical thinking.
Evaluation is one of the biggest parts in School Students lives. In order to ensure progress and ascertain that students will gain the required skills, to be able to fully develop at a social, personal and professional way, evaluation should be as objective and broad as possible. Evaluation that takes into consideration more than just the results of tests and gives feedback that is more sophisticated than just grading is one of the key aspects of educating a successful generation. The purpose of evaluation of knowledge should be to provide constructive feedback to the evaluated students. However, we can observe that almost no European country has sufficient implementation of progressive evaluation together with fact-based evaluation; the latter appearing to be the only approach used in secondary schools at the moment. OBESSU recognises that fact-based evaluation can be more objective, measurable and comparable than the progressive evaluation, but it sees that in most educational systems this objectiveness does not take into account many other important aspects such as progress, effort, personal capacities and so on. OBESSU is concerned that fact-based evaluation is only focused on competitiveness between schools and students, which may fuel and amplify social cleavages.
External evaluation on a national and international level concerns School Students and School Student organisations on all levels of education. OBESSU acknowledges the fact that the existence and methods of external evaluation on national level vary greatly between different European countries. External evaluation that examines the knowledge of School Students is sometimes also used for the evaluation of teachers and national educational systems based on School Student outcomes. This might lead to competition among countries, due to the fact that the purposes and aims of the evaluation are not properly set.
OBESSU’s main recommendations are: •
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• that the main goal of education is learning for life, thus the trend of exclusively “teaching that evaluation should be conducted based on to the test” must be avoided since this is improving education for School Students and restricting and takes the focus away from teachers, not primarily based on economic developing School Students’ competences; reasons or interest based on unhealthy • that education has to be based on competition between schools. The purpose of cooperation, however, in order to face modern education goes beyond employability and this society, healthy forms of competition can be should be recognised by all stakeholders; present to further enhance School Students’ that all stakeholders, including School motivation; Students and teachers, must be involved in • to reform evaluation systems using methods every step of the process; by developing the culture of cooperation that quality in terms of personal between schools, teachers and School development, should allow all School Students. Students to set and achieve their own goals, freely decided according to their interests and Our recommendations to European Institutions their capability; are: that all aspects of quality education • that European countries should have a should be taken into consideration and comparable grading system, in order to evaluated where appropriate. This should have fair and equal access to higher and be done continuously, individually and in an further education for all citizens of European improvement-oriented way; countries across Europe. that the objectives of a grading system should be recognised, but we strongly Our recommendations to national decisionsupport alternative forms of evaluation. A makers are: system based on numerical grades should • that evaluation be designed and implemented be supplemented with detailed explanatory with a clear purpose so that data collected can feedback as it is an insufficient system to be analysed and effectively addressed. This fully evaluate School Students performance will ensure quality assurance. and therefore should be improved;
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Guidelines. Education at 360°. Evaluation and quality assurance of Education
Our recommendations to national decision-makers are: • to set up evaluation systems which cover all aspects of the learning process and recognises the skills and competences acquired through non-formal education; • that standardised tests should not be the major method of School Students assessment: there should also be appropriate space and time for individual evaluation; • that other aspects and data is used in order to evaluate school and education system and not only School Students outcome in standardised exams, in order to ease the pressure on school systems and get a broader view on the current state; • to use fact-based evaluation in a broader evaluation framework to avoid social selection; • that students should have the right to not only be evaluated by their own teachers but also by impartial external bodies.
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Our recommendations to teachers are: • to consider evaluation as a tool to identify shortcomings and intervene to support students if necessary; • to involve School Students in their own evaluation, provide students with methods, tools and space both for self- and peerevaluation: this would increase democracy within the evaluation process and develop School Students’ ability to give and receive constructive feedback and support them in understanding their learning process; • to implement a system of continuous evaluation in support of the acquisition of skills and competences and knowledge for lifelong learning; • to take into consideration in the evaluation also students’ effort and progress since this would motivate them in their learning; • to encourage teamwork in class to ensure equality and cooperation between teachers and students; • that teamwork must be considered as a basic skill and therefore should be evaluated.
Guidelines. Education at 360°. Evaluation and quality assurance of Education
OBESSU’s main recommendations are: • that assessment of schools and educational systems on national and international level should not only grade academic skills and have to take creative, social and non-formal skills in account; • that external evaluation on any level is important for all stakeholders if it is orientated to improve the quality of education, • that national and international School Student organisations must be involved in the process of evaluation of educational systems.
Our main recommendations to national decision-makers are: • that educational systems and schools must have concrete tools for analysing and evaluating themselves in a coherent process. Those tools have to be created in cooperation with students, schools and student organisations; • that policies that follow due to the results of international assessment must always be in coherence with the true interest of stakeholders, and not be an answer to the often populist public discourse (e.g. Teaching for tests, short-term policies).
Our main recommendations to European Institutions are: • that the purpose of external evaluation has to focus on analysing the situation and creating plan for taking action, instead of just revising and illustrating the present situation; • to further develop other methods of evaluation than quantitative assessment, and that quantitative assessment should be complemented by qualitative evaluation to provide a more complete assessment and guarantee the involvement of School Students’ interest and the evaluation of their well-being.
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Guidelines. Education at 360°. Evaluation and quality assurance of Education
Evaluation of teachers If educational institutions are to fulfil their purpose and mission effectively, the persons responsible for the education system and content, foremost the teachers, should be evaluated by students in order to ensure the quality of education provided to them. Feedback should be given to the evaluated teachers in order for them to take this on and improve. In addition, evaluation of teachers could help in the evaluation of the educational system as a whole. Teachers should be evaluated both independently of the success of their students as well as in relation to it. Teachers are to a great extent responsible for the well-being of the student. A good relationship between teachers and students should be based on respect, understanding, and trust as well as constructive criticism,a friendly attitude, wisely used authority, individual equality and cooperation. Since all aspects of a teachers’ behaviour affects their performance and the performance of their students, we believe that all these aspects should be evaluated when evaluating teachers. Just as School Students, all teachers should be evaluated objectively and equally with a variety of evaluation methods. This would be in the interest of ensuring quality in education by evaluating the performance of teachers, and by applying feedback improving it.
OBESSU’s main recommendations are: • that the authority of teachers and its boundaries are clearly defined to ensure a productive relationship with their students; • that more attention is paid to giving students the opportunity to provide constructive feedback to teachers by implementing concrete systems of teacher evaluation; • that evaluation of teachers by students is actually based on the competence and effectiveness of the teacher and not the relationship between student and teacher; • that teachers’ evaluation conducted by School Students is advised to be anonymous to both other students and the teachers themselves to avoid open and/or destructive criticism. This can strengthen the bond between teachers and students and therefore benefit the development of both.
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Our recommendations to European Institutions are: • that teachers receive adequate initial training followed by continuous training possibilities adapted to the needs of their workplace. Evaluation of teachers should be used to determine the course of further training provided to teachers.
Our recommendations to national decision-makers are: • that evaluation of teachers should not be used in the hiring process of teachers or the process of determining their wages; • that teachers’ evaluations should never be made public citing the names of individual teachers or educational institutions.
Guidelines. Education at 360°. Evaluation and quality assurance of Education
From the 8th to the 14th of December 2012, Member and Observer organisations of the Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions (OBESSU) gathered in Bern, Switzerland for a Convention on the topic of evaluation and quality assurance of education. OBESSU feels that this discussion is often dominated by institutions and researchers, and does not include the day-to-day actors of education and training: School Students and teachers. OBESSU believes that education should be democratic and its assessment should be learnercentred: School Students must always be engaged in the assessment and shaping of not only the design of school systems, but also the contents of education and training. Throughout the Convention, OBESSU had the goal to reach a holistic approach to the topic of evaluation with a special emphasis on the evaluation of School Students and their role in evaluation processes.
Who are we? OBESSU – The Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions is the platform for cooperation between the national school student unions active in general secondary and secondary vocational education in Europe. It was founded in April 1975 in Dublin, Ireland and brings together member and observer organisations from more than 20 European countries. All member organisations are independent, national, representative and democratic school student organisations. We strive to represent School Students as stakeholders of their educational systems, and in issues concerning their lives.
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